Best Crossword Apps With Hints (2026): Reveal vs Reword

The best crossword app for hints is the one whose hints match how you like to be helped. NYT Games and the free LA Times crossword have the classic full set: check or reveal a square, a word or the whole grid. Crossword Puzzle Redstone has the deepest assist toolkit among free apps. Grid Genius is the only app here whose main hint rewords the clue instead of filling in letters, so you still find the answer yourself.

That last difference is the point of this guide. Almost every crossword app's hints are some version of "show me letters." That works, and sometimes it is what you want. But a hint that gives away the answer teaches you one word, and a hint that explains the clue teaches you how the clue worked. We compared what each app actually offers, checked against its own listing or help page on November 4, 2026.

The short answer

• Best hints that keep you solving: Grid Genius. AI rewords the clue, up to three different ways, before you ever reveal a letter.
• Best classic check and reveal: NYT Games. Check and reveal by square, word or puzzle, plus Autocheck. Subscription.
• Best free check and reveal: the LA Times crossword on latimes.com. The same square, word and grid controls, free.
• Best free assist tools in an app: Crossword Puzzle Redstone. Show Errors, Reveal Help, Lock Completed Words and more, with no coins.
• Best gentle hints for magazine puzzles: Penny Dell. Show the current letter or word, and show errors.
• Watch out for: coin-priced hints in Daily Themed Crossword and Crosswords With Friends.

The hint ladder, from gentle to giveaway

Crossword help comes in six kinds. They are worth knowing by name, because the right one at the right moment keeps the puzzle fun.

1. Reword the clue. A new clue for the same answer. You still do all the solving; you just get a second way in. Until AI, apps could not do this, because someone had to write the second clue.
2. Check. Is the letter, word or grid I typed right? Wrong letters get marked. You learn where you went astray without being told the answer.
3. Autocheck. Check that runs as you type. Fast, and it turns the puzzle into fill-in-until-it-turns-black, so use it sparingly.
4. Reveal a letter. One square filled in. Often enough to unlock a whole corner.
5. Reveal a word. The full entry, filled in. Fine when the answer is a name or fact you simply do not know.
6. Reveal the puzzle. The answer key. The end of the game.

Some apps add helpers outside the ladder: an anagram helper (Forkyz), web and clue lookups (Crosswords Classic), or pencil mode for tentative letters (Penny Dell, Crosswords Classic). The higher on the ladder you can stay, the more the solve stays yours.

Crossword hint features compared

From each app's own listing or help page, checked November 4, 2026. "Not stated" means the listing does not say, not that the feature is missing.

The apps, one by one

NYT Games (the complete classic set)

The New York Times help center describes the standard toolkit at its fullest. Check "checks a square, word, or the entire puzzle," and you can turn on Autocheck. Reveal shows "the correct letters for a square, an answer, or the entire puzzle." There is no rewording; the hints are all about letters.

The catch is the streak. The help center says plainly: "Using Check or Reveal will result in your Crossword Streak being reset." So every hint has a price in the one stat many subscribers care about most. The Crossword needs a subscription, listed on the App Store at $6.99 and $39.99.

LA Times Crossword (the same toolkit, free)

The LA Times crossword on latimes.com offers the same three levels, free: reveal "the current square, the current word, or the entire solution," and check "the current square, the current word, or the entire grid." Settings add an error check mode. A free account tracks streaks and personal-best times, and an ad plays before the game. It is a web puzzle, so bookmark it.

Apple News+ Puzzles (full set for subscribers)

Apple's guide lists Autocheck, Check Square, Check Word and Check Puzzle, and Reveal by square, word or puzzle. A revealed puzzle is "not counted toward stats" or a streak. It comes with Apple News+, at $12.99 a month after a free trial.

Crossword Puzzle Redstone (most assist tools, free)

Redstone's feature list is the longest among free apps: "Multi-word Entry Hints, Smart Step, Lock Completed Words, Incorrect Puzzle Assistance, Reveal Help, Show Errors, Clear Errors." None of it is described as costing coins. Lock Completed Words is a quietly good idea: once a word is right, you cannot overwrite it by accident. The app is free with ads, and a one-time $34.99 Remove Ads purchase is on the App Store.

Penny Dell (gentle letter and word hints)

Penny Dell's hints "show the current letter and the current word," and you can "Show puzzle errors at the touch of a button," with a pen and pencil mode for tentative answers. Its paid puzzle sets "include free Hints and the option to Show Errors." Three free crosswords arrive each day, with ads unless you buy the one-time $19.99 Remove Ads. The same publisher's Daily POP Crossword Puzzles app on iOS lets you "Show errors or reveal letters and words at any time."

Daily Themed Crossword and Crosswords With Friends (hints cost coins)

Both are friendly, pop-culture dailies, and both make hints part of their store. Daily Themed Crossword offers "Hints to get you past those obscure words," paid for with coins sold in packs from $2.99. Crosswords With Friends says "Use hints to move ahead faster," and its App Store purchases include a bundle of coins and 19 hints for $11.99. Neither listing says how many coins a hint costs. If you lean on hints, the free tier of these apps nudges you toward the shop.

Forkyz (an anagram helper, free)

The open-source Android player groups Show Errors and Reveal in one hint menu, and adds an anagram helper, which is a different kind of help: it rearranges letters you already suspect rather than giving you new ones. Free, no ads, from F-Droid.

How AI hints work in Grid Genius

Grid Genius builds its hints around the top of the ladder. When a clue stops you, the first option is Reword with AI: a new clue for the same answer, phrased another way. Ask again and you get a different rewording, up to three per clue. Each one is a new angle, not a bigger piece of the answer. Try the idea here:

Below the reword, the rest of the ladder is there when you want it: reveal a letter or reveal a word. Check is always free, and an Auto-Check setting marks wrong letters as you type.

The scoring follows the ladder, so help is never a cliff:

• Your first reword of a clue costs no points. It only forfeits the perfect-solve bonus.
• More rewords cost a few points, with a small cap.
• Revealed letters cost more, and a whole word costs the most, with every penalty capped so one stubborn corner cannot sink a solve.
• Hints never break your daily streak. A separate "clean solves in a row" count tracks dailies finished with no help, for when you want the strict version.

The allowance, honestly stated. Hints need a free sign-in, because they are saved to your account. Free accounts get 2 hints to start, a daily bonus, and, in the iPhone and Android apps, up to 3 more a day from optional videos. Pro makes AI hints and reveals unlimited. If you only ever want unlimited reveals, the hints screen also sells a one-time Hint Pass, with no subscription.

The honest limits: rewords are AI-written, so once in a while a reword is less helpful than the original clue, which is why the next one is a tap away. And Grid Genius has no cryptic crosswords, so this kind of hint is for straight and punny clues. For the etiquette question, read is using crossword hints cheating?

How to use hints without spoiling the puzzle

The best solvers use hints often and well. A few rules that keep a solve satisfying:

• Give every clue a real attempt first. Thirty seconds of staring is where the learning happens. A hint after a real attempt sticks; a hint before one does not.
• Climb the ladder one rung at a time. Reword, then check, then one letter, then a word. Most clues fall at the second rung.
• Reveal facts, not wordplay. If the answer is a name or a date you never knew, reveal it and move on. If it is a pun you have not cracked, reword or check instead, because that is the part you can learn.
• Use crossings before reveals. Solve the words that cross a stuck answer first. Two crossing letters are often all you need.
• Turn off Autocheck when you want a challenge. It is a fine training wheel, and it makes a puzzle much easier.

New to crosswords? Our beginner's guide to solving crosswords covers the clue types that hints help with most.

How to choose

• You want hints that teach you the clue. Grid Genius.
• You want the full check and reveal set on the classic daily. NYT Games, if a subscription is fine and you accept that hints reset the streak.
• You want check and reveal on a newspaper puzzle for free. The LA Times on the web.
• You want lots of free assist tools in an app. Redstone.
• You want simple letter and word hints on magazine puzzles. Penny Dell.
• You do not want to pay per hint. Avoid coin-priced hint economies, or pick an app where hints come with the puzzle.

Frequently asked questions